This is the Gary V. Audio Experience.

I think something I've been spending a lot of time on recently is the first five, six years of someone's life is so formative.

And I have this hypothesis lately that if you are lucky enough to be born into a family that doesn't have a lot financially, but is incredibly happy and loving,

you've started life in a foundation that gives you a massive advantage because you realize that money is not the answer to happiness.

And I am that person. I was born in the Soviet Union. I got very fortunate to come to this great country when I was three years old.

And life was super hard. I lived with nine family members in the studio apartment, the size of this stage in Queens.

We grew up lower middle class, the majority of my early childhood, but it was a happy household.

My mom, as you mentioned quickly, is the hero of my life. And she instilled incredibly massive foundations for me around kindness of empathy and compassion and all the things.

I mean, literally be friends, the IP that I'm building right now in the back of NFKs, which will have the biggest booth at this convention in 10 years is really is really, really, really the seed of how my mother saw the world.

My mom lost her mom at five, grew up in the Soviet Union, like real tough life and really showed me all the true answers to the world. And so I grew up very, very much not entitled.

My mom was the sweetest as pie, but my mom is super cheap and we were poor.

So everything I ever wanted, she looked me in the face and said, go get it.

So lemonade stands, washing cars, shoveling snow, you know, I'm built on hard work.

I think entitlement is a disease. I think a lot of people have it today. And I'm very grateful I don't.

And I think we're all byproducts of our childhood. I think there's things that I've had to work on just like anybody else.

I think as grownups we can do that. You can't just say, oh, my parents fucked me up. You know, you've got to work at it.

But I am as grateful as one can be on earth. I've been writing a book in my head. I've written a lot of books, but the one that I've been holding nearest and nearest is a book that I'm going to call perfectly parented.

I'm going to talk about how they did it, what they did. And I hope it creates different conversations because I think parenting is one of the most important conversations in the world.

So I had also incredible parents growing up. My mom, same thing Gary, was really focused on inclusivity.

Whenever we had people in the world, whenever we did anything, whenever I was invited anywhere, she always said, did you invite someone to talk to someone? We'd be an event. We'd say inviting this person to the table.

And obviously I'm so happy when you're a little kid. You're always having to move with conversations and invite people to places and make sure people are taking care of it's slightly more neat. And then as an adult, you become this person.

Let's bring this person into the conversation. It makes you a great leader. It makes you a great person. You don't take advantage.

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